Q2.1 Core Structures & Processes in Healthcare With reference to theoretical frameworks, what are the different dimensions of quality in health systems?
Healthcare quality is an abstract and major phenomenon that cannot be realized without achieving improvements in the performance of a human body and general efficiency in a state’s sanitary system. For instance, healthcare systems are adequately handled by various theoretical frameworks like Maxwell’s dimensions of healthcare and the STEEEP model. The frameworks present systematic approaches for evaluation, maintenance and the improvement in service quality at health institutions.
Maxwell's dimensions of quality, as developed by R.J. Maxwell, encompass six key facets (Maxwell, 1992):
Access to services: Under this dimension, health care services must be available when needed by individuals without difficulty. These include factors like geographic accessibility, lowered waiting times amongst others under this dimension.
Relevance to need: Healthcare of high quality should focus on providing patients with an appropriate kind of treatment that matches their respective health needs.
Effectiveness: Healthcare effectiveness is a measure of the success by which healthcare services attain positive results towards the patients’ health conditions. It requires use of treatment and practice model that is empirically demonstrated as being effective.
Equity: The equity remains an important component of fairness and equal access of health care services to every one, regardless of the socio-economic, race, and other factors, with the objective of eradicating any kind of health-care disparity.
Acceptability: This area revolves around what the patient expects or how satisfied he is with the kind of care they receive at the hospital. It includes items like open communication, patient respect, and patient centered care.
Efficiency and economy: Efficiency and economy are important in health care for a service based on its costs effectiveness. Its goal is to maximize efficiency as well as quality of care with little wasted resources.
However, the STEEP model captures salient dimensions of quality healthcare care through its focus on customer-orientation. The acronym STEEEP stands for (Hannibal, 2016):
Safe: Safety of patients, making sure that medical intervention does not harm patients and mitigating risks are crucial elements of quality care.
Timely: Delivering care urgently, reducing waiting time, and unnecessary delay stress that timeliness is critical.
Effective: The purpose of quality care is to reach the expected health goals utilizing proper clinical procedures and therapies.
Equitable: Equitable care advocates for an equitable distribution of resources for all people irrespective of their gender, race, and socioeconomic status among others.
Efficient: Healthcare efficiency is all about making sure that resources are utilized well in order to deliver good quality of care without wastage.
Patient-centered: The heart of the program centers upon providing treatment that respects patients’ beliefs, desires and requirements.
Finally, on this line, Maxwell’s framework and the STEEEEP framework explain the different aspects that entail quality in health care. Integration of these aspects into the healthcare delivery will help ensure improved health outcomes as well as better quality of care.
Q2.2 Complementary History of Medicine What impact did ‘Hospital Medicine’ have on the ways in which medicine in taught and practiced today?
Hospital Medicine has had an influential lasting effect on how medicine is currently taught and practiced today. This impact is evident in several key aspects, as outlined in the text:
Practical Training: The French revolution changed the emphasis on medical education from being essentially theory-based to practical medicine. Schools were established with an aim of equipping medical students through practical exercises during their stay in hospitals. It’s worth noting that this emphasis on practical training has lasted and remains an integral part of medical education. The medical students still undergo practical training in hospitals so that they can get a chance of putting into practice what they have acquired theoretically at school.
Integration of Medicine and Surgery: During this time, one of the most important changes was in the separation of physicians from surgeons. The medical students learnt from a single book that combined medicine and surgery thereby eliminating artificial separation of these areas. Medically today medical practitioners understand more both medical, surgical but these integrations have made the fields such as general practitioners or internal medical specialists.
Physical Diagnosis: Important components of physical diathesis such as inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation were introduced by the French School of medicine. These approaches are still essential in the art of medicine practice, which is a subject matter taught to medical school students. To carry out physical examination and determine different kinds of health complications in this modern era, physicians employ the same approach.
Pathological-Clinical Correlation: Pathological-clinical correlation remains an important routine practice in medicine, following the traditions of the French school. The physicians apply this approach to correlate clinical presentation and pathology with proper diagnosis and formulation of treatment options.
Use of Large Case Numbers: Evidence based medicine now follows the lead set by “medical revolution” in using several cases for diagnosis and therapy evaluation during many cases for different diagnoses and therapeutic procedures. In most cases, current medical research utilizes big data and evidence-guided approach in deciding about patient treatment as well as advanced medical information.
Technological Advancements: New medical technologies also emerged in hospital medicine, including Laennec’s stethoscope. Medical technology has grown exponentially as each new discovery comes to aid of diagnosis and therapy.
The effect of hospital medicine went further in establishing mental hospitals and the area of psychiatry too. In contemporary mental health, this legacy affirms the need for a mental and psychiatric care that is tailor-made. At last the “Hospital Medicine” of French revolution epoch is still influencing medical learning and health care into today. The practices and principles introduced back then still define the manner in which medicine is taught and used nowadays, emphasizing on practical training, medical-surgical integration, physical examination, diagnoses, correlation between diseases and clinical conditions, evidence-based practice, and application of modern medical technologies.
Q2.3 Cross-cutting Communication What strategies have you applied in effectively communicating your ideas and providing fair and constructive feedback?
During my presentation skills session I participated in an interactive classroom with strong emphasis on effective communication and peer coaching mechanisms. The experience contributed to my development at the personal level as well as that of other team members whereby it made me understand better how one could succeed in the art of presenting and providing constructive criticism to colleagues.
The centerpiece for our operation is participation. Thus, I ended up being engaged in dialogues and joint projects. Such intense involvement led to an opportunity where I could interact with various new views about practical communication and presentation techniques.
Our journey towards the collaborative learning included constructive feedback and played a significant role in it. Our team stressed that we should keep on encouraging each other in order to ensure a constructive atmosphere while giving comments. Instead of merely highlighting areas that needed improvements, we always helped each other with suggestions. The strategy helped build a positive environment where everyone participated actively in improving their speech skills.
To ensure effective team collaboration, we identified together the factors that make good presentation. It was an amazing knowledge base as we were able to explore each perspective in order to realize the essential elements of an impressive presentation. Thus, it is what we call an opportunity to grow and a sense of unity that comes with collaborative work towards one common goal for a successful mission.
Our interactions were centered on effective communication. The idea that one must be able to communicate succinctly and effectively in order to create a memorable presentation dawned on me. As a result, we motivated each other towards clear expression of our ideas while ensuring clarity in passing across our messages to others.
It was important for us to have empathy towards our peers’ perspectives and views which are one of the key values. However, this approach promoted free and courteous exchange of views that lead to the creation of constructive learning environment wherein multiple perspectives are valued.
We advocated for use principles in support of presenting information through chunking and attention grabbing. We developed these presentations on the basis of principles that made the approach more effective and attractive to our target audience.
Finally, the importance of preparation, planning, timing, and audience awareness also featured in our seminar. Adaptability is essential, especially in presenting that resonates with the audience’s choice of the topics that affect them, a lesson I learnt.
The technical preparedness as well as the utility of backup plans was stressed out which is essential in order to ensure that the presentation runs seamlessly with no hitches.
To sum up, this session allowed me to get useful tips on how create efficient communication, work co-operation, and feedback regarding presentation skills development. It is through collaborative learning that I realize my abilities to enhance skills of achieving shared goals while presenting to others. This experience has laid down a solid ground upon which I shall base my successive presentations and provide my peer comments that facilitate favorable classroom climate.
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